Cummíne Fota

  • fl. 7th century
  • feast-day: 12 November
  • saints of Ireland
  • Clúain Fertae
early Irish saint, patron of Clonfert (Clúain Fertae)
See also: Comgán Mac Dá CherdaComgán Mac Dá Cherda
(fl. first half of the 7th century)
Comgán Mac Da Cherda, Mac Dá Cherda, Mac Da Cherda
Poet and fool (óinmit) in Irish literature; a son of Máel Ochtraig (king of the Déisi Muman) and a contemporary of Cummíne Fota. The name Mac Dá Cherda would mean ‘Son of Two Arts’, but seeing as it may go back to an original Moccu Cherda (as suggested by Jackson and Ó Coileáin) it is perhaps best spelled conservatively, without lengthening in Da.
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LíadainLíadain
(supp. fl. 7th century)
a professional female poet (ban-éices) of the Corcu Duibne in the tragic love story known as Comrac Líadaine ocus Cuirithir.
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See also references for related subjects.
Ó Riain, Pádraig, A dictionary of Irish saints, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011.  
Scarcely a parish in Ireland is without one or more dedications to saints, in the form of churches in ruins, holy wells or other ecclesiastical monuments. This book is a guide to the (mainly documentary) sources of information on the saints named in these dedications, for those who have an interest in them, scholarly or otherwise. The need for a summary biographical dictionary of Irish saints, containing information on such matters as feastdays, localisations, chronology, and genealogies, although stressed over sixty years ago by the eminent Jesuit and Bollandist scholar, Paul Grosjean, has never before been satisfied. Professor Ó Riain has been working in the field of Irish hagiography for upwards of forty years, and the material for the over 1,000 entries in his Dictionary has come from a variety of sources, including Lives of the saints, martyrologies, genealogies of the saints, shorter tracts on the saints (some of them accessible only in manuscripts), annals, annates, collections of folklore, Ordnance Survey letters, and other documents. Running to almost 700 pages, the body of the Dictionary is preceded by a preface, list of sources and introduction, and is followed by comprehensive indices of parishes, other places (mainly townlands), alternate (mainly anglicised) names, subjects, and feastdays.
243–245   “Cuimín Fada”
Charles-Edwards, T. M., “Connacht, saints of (act. c.400–c.800)”, Oxford dictionary of national biography, Online: Oxford University Press, 2011–. URL: <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51012>.
Clancy, Thomas Owen, “Saint and fool: the image and function of Cummíne Fota and Comgán Mac Da Cherda in early Irish literature”, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991.
Edinburgh Research Archive: <link>
Walsh, Maura, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Cummian’s letter De controversia Paschali: together with a related Irish computistical tract De ratione conputandi, Studies and Texts, 86, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1988.
CELT – De controversia Paschali, text (pp. 56–96): <link> CELT – De controversia Paschali, translation (pp. 57–95): <link>
Mac Eoin, Gearóid, “A life of Cumaine Fota”, in: Bo Almqvist, Brendán MacAodha, and Gearóid Mac Eoin (eds), Hereditas: essays and studies presented to professor Seamus Ó Duilearga, former honorary director of the Irish Folklore Commission, 39, 40, 41:1971–1973, Dublin: Folklore of Ireland Society, 1975. 192–205.